Michelle Williams Interviewed About Heath Ledger

Michelle Williams has had a busy year. Between her turn as brave western pioneer Emily Tetherow in Meek’s Cutoff and her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn, Williams has been the ‘it’ girl just below the mainstream surface. In the upcoming issue of GQ, set to hit shelves on January 24, Williams talks about her acting performances, education, and her relationship with Heath Ledger.

After attending Sante Fe Christian School in San Diego, Williams was well on the way to a strong acting career. Although some people, including her old school, may not approve of some of the acting choices she has made, Williams doesn’t regret a thing.

” I remember my mother saying to me at one point, ‘Just don’t make anything your grandmother couldn’t see.’ And at that point I knew I was living a sinful artistic career, because I had done, and I knew I would do.”

She’s certainly made some tough career choices, often finding herself in roles that are more painfully beautiful to watch than satisfying popcorn flicks. If you are worried her acting choices might speak of some inner sadness, that doesn’t seem to be the case for Williams.

"Maybe when I was in my early twenties and my late teens, I was more prone to sitting in it or lacerating myself with it. Now I want to move out of it. I have a daughter. I want a happy life.”

That’s a far cry from the life she was living at the beginning of 2008, in the weeks following her daughter’s father, Heath Ledger’s, death. While Williams believes death can be as intrusive as it likes, she says “there is no handbook” for the crazy paparazzi onslaught that occurred during that time.

”It was making me crazy. I felt like I was going crazy. It was too much—trying to deal with what had happened and trying to deal with what was at our doorstep. I just felt trapped. And it's not just me—there's somebody else who I'm trying to protect, and I can't. I can't make it stop, I can't make it go away.”

Is there a part of her that wishes the whole affair with herself and Ledger had ended differently?

"I said it would make me too sad to answer but it's also...one of my favorite things to imagine. It's actually one of my favorite places to visit."

You can check out Christ Heath’s full interview with Williams over at GQ